The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 28, 1929, Page 6

wt Six : DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 109 Baily Sg Worker | Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. * Published by the Nati Ww. rker Publishing A e, New York Daily, excent Sunday r Telephone Stuyv D: AIWOR SUE RIPTION R Ry Mail ( v York only): $8.00 a year $4.50 six three months d By Mail (out $6.00 a year 3.50 six 1 three months Adéress and mail all checks to t 8 Union Square, New <=>., Driving Toward Soviet Recognition The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has received what is called “a large measure of judicial recognition” in the federal court in New York City, despite the lack of poli- tical recognition by the government at Washington, the state department of which for eleven years under four presidents has insisted that there is no new government in Russia. Federal Judge Goddard rendered his decision, declaring it contained no contradictions, but that it was perfectly in harmony with all the established precedents of the law, at the very moment when the “Zinoviev Letter” fraud was being exposed in Berlin, and an imposing group of British business- men were leaving for Moscow to drum up Russian trade. It may yet develop that there is close connection between these three developments. It is said that the United States courts follow the election returns; but they also keep an eye on American trade possibilities, in these days of overproduc- tion and an increasing army of unemployed at home. The Soviet Union today offers a tempting market for American goods and may even cause the United States government to lose its faith in the fake Zinoviev document. The “American nationals” that Judge Goddard is worried about are the Chase National Bank and the Equitable Trust Company, defendants in the suit brought by the ik of France to seize $5,000,000 in gold sent here by the Soviet State Bank at Moscow. The gold is safely back in Moscow, but the French bank is still pressing for payment. Judge Goddard says, “That there is an existing government in Russia, sovereign within its own territory, cannot be and is not entirely ignored even by our own country, although it has “ not recognized such a government. For instance, in proceedings ‘ to naturalize Russian citizens, the executive and judicial branches of our own government acknowledge the existence of ‘the present government in Russia’ to the extent of requiring such applicants for citizenship to forswear allegiance to ‘the present government of Russia.’ A marriage which is valid under the laws of the present government of Russia is quite universally regarded as valid in this country.” Thus the United States government dodges the existence of the Soviet gov ernment by referring to it as “the present government of Russia,” while there was no hesitancy in the pre-revolutionary days of 1917 to refer to the czarist regime as the “Imperial Russian Government of the Czars,” or some- thing to that effect, giving all the high-sounding names and titles adopted by the oppressors of the Russian masses. Even after 11 years the government at Washington is still having a hard time convincing itself that Russian czar- ism is gone forever. The latest issue of the congressional | record still carried the name of the notorious Serge Ughet as “Agent for Russia.” The Kerensky regime that Ughet came to represent was swept away in the flood waters of the revolution in November, 1917. But it has been conveni- ent for the United States to continue some form of recog- nition of him. For instance he was able to collect the damages, which should have rightfully gone to the Soviet government, that were awarded as a result of the wartime “Black Tom” explosion in New Jersey. The interests of “American nationals” in the Soviet Union are continually growing. This is easily seen in the contracts reached, for instance, by the Standard Oil Company of New York and the International Electric Company with the Soviet government. The United States government claims to be jealous of-the rights of its “nationals.” It has declared a war in permanency against Latin America to protect their interests, maintains a hardboiled machine gun diplomacy ready for duty at a moment’s notice, and sends thousands of marines and fleets of battleships to danger sectors in the orient, especially against China. Washington has been accustomed to declare that it was possible to get Soviet trade without recognition. That is what the British thought, five years ago, when they faked the “Zinoviev Letter’ in the election campaign of that year and later broke off diplomatic relations. But the British now seem bent on driving rapidly for renewed Soviet recognition and new efforts to capture trade with the Soviet Union. Thus American trade faces an increasing competition from the British in this important sector of the world market. It is this situation that is inexorably driving the American government toward recognition of the proletarian dictator- ship of workers and peasants in the form of the Soviet gov- ernment. The judicial recognition given by the federal courts in New York City paves the way toward political recognition. The Masses Press Forward The third revolt within two weeks of mill slaves against the speed-up in Southern mills has broken out, this time in South Carolina. The 136,000 spindles of the New England Southern Manu- facturing Company came to a stoppage under circumstances worth noting. Although never before organized, nor having any real conception of organization, these 2,500 spindle slaves were driven together into a compact mass by the knotted whips of one of the nation’s most highly rationalized industries. The workers*appointed three of their number to confer with the plant superintendent. This committee was influ- enced by the employer’s plea for delay. But not so the mass of workers. They swept aside the report of their committee and with inspiring unanimity went on strike against the “Classification System,” the fancy name of the exquisite tor- ture imposed on them. ° Such are the battle lines thrown up by the workers in the South durfng the past two weeks in Happy Valley, Ten- nessee, and in North Carolina, testimony to the militancy of the workers in this section of the country. _ This is the militancy that must find a national center in the Trade Union Unity Convention to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, June 1. The rapidly developing, short, sharp struggles of the Southern mill workers must be developed into a na- ly organized movement under the banners of the Na- tional Textile Workers’ Union that will support the Cleveland _ Convention. It is not only necessary for workers, especially in the South, to begin to move. They must have a program, out- lining correct tactics, and linking up all militant labor in a powerful industrial organization, based on the class struggle, warring alike against the employers and their servile lieu- nants, the reactionary labor bureaucrats. The masses in ¢ South are pressing forward. Every possible coer be taken against defeat and retreat, sida nf By M. N. ROY. | THE recognition of the Nanking government by the great imper- ialist powers and the agreement on the long-debated question of China’s right to levy higher customs dut |. 4 China. new note of discord is struck, all|the Nanking government tries to| Perspectives of the Situation collected from the Kiangsu and Chekiang. The monthly expenditure of the Nanking government is 9 million| dollars. This large deficit has been | met by loans ever since the in-| | auguration of the government. provinces of | Un-| were read in the bourgeois world | as the signs of a new era in China. It was believed that under the leadership of the nationalist bour- geoisie, who had so ruthlessly dealt with the revolutionary workers and peasants, China was entering the paradise of capitalist law and order. Not only the bourgeoisie, but their allies of the international social | democracy also welcomed the birth | of capitalist China. Socialists Jubilant. of a sudden, from the most unex- pected quarter. On the eve of the Party Congress, Kiangsu Provincial organization, which has all along been a stronghold of Chiang Kai- shek, demands the return of his rival, Wong Ching-wei, who was forced by the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie to flee the country after| he had betrayed the national revo- lution at their behest. The appar- | ent unity of the Party was estab-| lished by the elimination of Wong | til now the Shanghai Chinese bank- | base itself. They are the big city’ ors have lent the Nanking govern-| bourgeoisie, on the one hand, and) ment the total sum of 126 million the feudal landlords, on the other.| yore. ; el And the Holy Ghost of imperialism eee anveverney ingeteat 2 lurking rather prominently in tis Sorte wouldireach anvextuceras | background, makes the trinity of]. ; | the political faith of Nanking com-| tion to say that the Nanking gov- plete. ernment is mortgaged to the Shang- a a ee |hai Chinese bankers behind whom| e wrestle inside the Kuomin-| stands international imperialist fi- |tang is the wrestle for power be-| nance, The new customs tariff in- tween the big bankers of the mari-| troduced from February ist, will time provintes and feudal barons of | produce two and a half millions a| from the leadership. Now, it ap- pears that Wong and the petty bourgeois Left wing, who are op- posed to the Nanking clique of Shanghai bankers, are not elimin- ated. The situation is so tense that all shipping on the middle For example, the Arbeiter Zeitung of Vierina (Dec. 27, 1928) welcomed China’s entry into the “whirlpool of | capitalist economy” with the wise | observation that “the lesson of the defeat of Moscow in China is that no stage in the history of social} jevolution can be jumped over.” | river According to the organ of Austro- Marxism, “barbarous Asiatic Bol- shevism” could be defeated by Bri- tish imperialism “on the banks of |the Yangtze,” because the former | sought to change the course of his- phere is charged with the possibility of new war between Wuhan and Nanking. Meeting of Militarists. ltory. The meeting of the war-lords in | Even among the Communists Nanking was a more important} | there were a few who anticipated a| Phenomenon. It augured the bank-| |period of capitalist stabilization of|Tuptcy of militarism, and was preg-| China, They thought that the tem-| ant with more far-reaching conse- b ctaeg defeat of the revolution) quences than the armed truce among | would lead to a concentration of the|the warring factions inside the Kuomintang. The continuance of militarism has been made untenable} from both sides. The revolutionary | ferment among the peasant masses} is positively dangerous for militar- ism, which is constantly threatened by peasant uprising, in the rear, on the flank, indeed, on all sides. On the other hand, imperialism {has decided to change the feudal militarists for the bourgeoisie as its social base in China. The United} States have to a great extent dic- forces of the bourgeoisie in a capi-| talist state. Unstable From Start. However, from the very day of its inauguration, the Nanking gov- ernment stood revealed in its instability. Today it is more evi- dent than ever that the nationalist] bourgeoisie are not capable of solv- ing the problems that face *China.? | It has signally failed to accom- | plish the tasks it set to itself. These tasks were: to centralize the coun- try under a supreme political pow- er; to reduce military expenditure |through the centralization and limi-| tation of the armies; and to Te-lias heen the main disturbing fac- jconstruct the country economically| '@5 Deen the ma : on the basis of centralized finance.|‘Y in this respect. It has outlived It must now be set |None of these tasks has been so| its usefulness. ; | much as touched. rel TO NEE SEN Fi A list domination of China. The cause of this signal failure)’ | of the attempt to reconstruct China ‘is simple. It is that the bourgeois democratie revolution has not yet been complete in China. The crea- | tion of a centralized bourgeois state is conditional upon the accomplish- |ment of the bourgeois democratic | revolution. The Chinese bourgeoisie seek to {build a capitalist state without hav- |ing created the conditions for the existence of such a state. They) aspire to taste the sweet fruits of a revolution that they have shame- jlessly betrayed. Therefore, not) | sweet fruits, but bitter disappoint-) | ment is their share. Counter-Revolution. The signs of a concentration of) the forces of counter-revolution| W@S largely on paper. were read in two facts. The first) The achievement of the Nanking of these was the composition of the fovernment in the sphere of mili- discords and disagreements inside | tary concentration, after all, has not the Kuomintang consolidating the|been more abiding than on the | position of the ¢o-called middle! question of party unity, The re- | group around Chiarfy Kai-shek; and/ appearance of the notorious Chang \the second was the meeting of all) Tsung-chang proves that the curse the war-lords in Nanking to discuss | of militarism is not cured. It proves the thorny question of the central-| that imperialism, as a whole, cannot ization and limitation of military| dispense with its tried and tradi- | forces. | tional weapon in dominating China, The first was a more apparent) even if it wants to, | success than the latter, It was not} There is little doubt that Japan |a peace, but armed truce among the) stands behind Chang Tsung-chang, antagonistie counter - revolutionary | and it is very likely that Japan vio- | factions to deal with the revolution.| lates the new imperialist orienta- | The vital issue concerning the aboli-| tion in China under the instigation | tion of the Branch Political Coun- | of Britain. Thus capitalist recon- |cils, whose continued existence) struction of China under a central- /meant ‘hat the Party was split up) ized bourgeois state, desired by im- into a number of independent and/perialism, meets serious obstacles warring groups, could not be settled.| before it is hardly undertaken, It was postponed till the Third Par-| These obstacles are produced by ty Congress. This is due to meet} class contradictions in China and in the middle of March. contradictions of imperialism. Every precaution has been taken] The contradictions inside the coun- by the ruling clique to make it a/ try grow out of the antagonistic in- packed assembly, Nevertheless, aj terests of the two classes on which Extension of trade and investment of capital demand tolerably peace- ful conditions in China. | particularly America, extended their benediction to the Nanking govern- ment, Threatened from both sides —constant menace of peasant up- imperialist support—awakened con- stitutional scruples in the war-lords who flocked to Nanking wishing to | participate in a joint control of the entire country rather than carry on their precarious efforts to gain ab- solute control of. certain regions. | This agreement to subordinate them- |selves to a national high command, and to disband part of their respee- tive forces was something unprece- ‘dented in the history of the Chinese Republic, although this agreement Yangtze has stopped. The atmos-| tated this new orientation in China.| Militarism | Therefore, the imperialist powers, | rising and the vanishing prospect of | | | the interior now that the ballast of petty bourgeois radicalism has been ed and discredited third factor en- deavors to smuggle itself back into ie politiedl arena through the back- | oor, It allies étself with the feudal} mnilitarist Kiangsi group, thus con- stituting itself a factor of disrup- tion. Supremacy Only Nominal. Sitting at the apex of such a pre- carious class combination the Nank- ing government began its career with a very grandiose scheme of | reconstruction, The very first steps towards the realization of this) |scheme threatened to .disrupt the| loose class alliance which constitutes | the social basis of the Nanking gov-| ernment. Although it has assumed | the grandilloquent title of National | Government, the Nanking clique, in | fact, rules only over two and a half | provinces—Kiangsu, Chekiang and) southern half of Anhwei. The supremacy of Nanking over other provinces is but nominal, the | quarters his exacting baliffs on the) real power being still in the posses-| debtor country. So there appear in| largely | China a whole host of American} sion of local authorities dominated by feudal militarists. So a government based upon the sup- port of the merchants of the two maritime provinces and the bankers) of Shanghai endeavors to extend its rule over the interior of the coun- try where feudalism still rules su- preme. It is one thing to make a laudable scheme; but to put it into effect is| |done out of the profitable job with- something entirely different. The | success of the scheme of the Bank- ers’ Conference, which brought the Nanking government in its present precarious existence, depends upon the ability of tee government to find occupation for the disbanded soldiers. This is a very hard nut to crack, and the Nanking govern- ment has brok€n its teeth on this nut. There are approximately 1,- 600,000 troops, rea§y or nominally, under the control of the Nanking government. The plan is to reduce the number to half. So, consider- ably more than a million men, count- ing soldiers and the camp-followers, are to be disbanded, The initial cost for disbanding these men is es- timated at least at 40 milljon dol- Jars. Where is this money to be found? This is the problem. The next, and more difficult prob- lem, is that of finding permanent employment for the disbanded sol- diers. There are two directions in which the problem could be solved; namely, providing the men with land and capital to cultivate it, or extensive public works (construe- tion of roads, railways, etc.). The first alternative involves an attack upon feudalism, which the national- ist bourgeoisie have proved them- selves unwillimg and incapable of doing. The latter requires a huge supply of capital, which the Chinese bour- geoisie by themselves are not able to find. So the disbandment scheme, which is the condition sin quo non of the reorganization of national fi- nance, hangs fire. * Meanwhile, the Nanking, govern- ment is in great financial difficulty. Although the total revenue of the country is estimated at 450 million dollars, and the control of this sum theoretically belongs to the Nank- ing government, the actual income of this is only 5 millions a month month, hardly fifty per cent of thrown overboard. But this defeat| Which sum will enter the national) exchequer, as the part collected at Canton and ports similarly situated | will be absorbed by the local author- | ities. So there is not a bright spot) on the horizon. Bourgeois Fiasco. The attempt to create a modern bourgeois state in China has ended in a fiasco. The Chinese nationalist bourgeoisie are utterly unable to tackle ‘the problem. There is only one way for them—to sell them- selves and the country to imperialist finance. Unlimited supply of capi- tal, with the help of which the baf-| | fling problems of disbandment and| | financifl reorganization can possibly be tackled with greater chance of success, must come from abroad. There is only one imperialist coun- try whick is in a vosition to supply unlimited capital. That is the United | | States of America, But Uncle Sam| would not give a cent unless he “advisers.” Judging from the num- ber of these, they are a veritable | army of occupation. The new orientation of imperialist | | policy in China thus works all in| |favor of the United States, if it works at all. Others are left in the cold. But Britain, Japan, France, with their “special interests’ in China could not be expaéted to be out making a counter-move. They are making it. The renewal of the Anglo-Japanese agreement, which was burst by America in 1921, was a part of this move, which is tak- ing the form of support and en- couragement to movements disput- ing the supremacy of Nanking. So, the irreconcilable rivalry among imperialist powers is bound to give impetus to the forces of dis- ruption in China, thus operating against their own desire to see a counter-revolutionary bourgeois gov- ernment established in that country. Neither the nationalist bourgeoisie, nor foreign imperivlism can solve the Chinese problems in a way fav- orable to capitalism. Socialist Revolution. The accomplishment of the na- tional bourgeois democratic revolu- tion is the basic condition for the solution of all the complicated econ- omic and political problems of China. Feudalism has to be com- pletely destroyed before militarism, which is one of its ugly by-products, can be liquidated, In consequence of the failure of the bourgecisie to do it, the historic task devolves upon the proletariat. And che hourgeois democratic revolution carried to its conclusion by the proletariat, in this period of capitalist decay, trans- forms itself directly into, socialist revolution. The debacle of the Nanking government and the new period of civil war, that is sure to be the result of this debacle, will present the working class with the cpportunity to go over again to the offensive. Reviewing the situation the correspondent of the London Times wrote from Nenking already at the beginning of the new year: “It (outbreak of new hostilities) would give the Communists the op- portunity to establish a leadership which would be difficuit to destroy.” | | | i} ————- Copyright, 1929, by Publishers Co., Inc. BILL =a HAYWOOD’S BOOK Haywood in Chicago Meeting; St. John Shot by Paddy Mullaney So far Haywood has told of his bitterly hard work while w child, of learning the labor movement at first hand by helping, as a@ miner, to organize the Western Federation of Miners in places to which it had not yet penetrated, of learning from eye witnesses the story of the Haymarket tragedy, and of American imperialism from the few Indians who escaped from its massacres in its early stages. He has told how he was made secretary of the W.F'.M., helped to organize the 1.W.W., and was aequitted of a frame-up charge for murdering a governor. In the last installment, he gives a letter sent him by DeLeon, criticising the Haywood policies in the I.W.W. By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 71. | ae letter I did not answer. First because DeLeon was not in the country at the time, and second because I was becoming more and more convinced that the Socialist Labor Party was so completely dominated by DeLeon’s prejudices that it could not lend strength to any movement with which it became associated. Whether right or wrang, DeLeon always insisted that he was right. He made it impossible for any, except his devotees to work with him. One able man after another had to leave him. To DeLeon the Industrial Workers of the World was a recruiting ground for the Socialist Labor Party. The S.L.P. had agreed at the first convention that the I.W.W. should be organized on the economic and political fields without affiliation to any political party; this left the 1.W.W. free to develop in time its own political reflection, a party of the working class. The history of the I.W.W. has shown the significance of political action. While there are some members who decry legislative and con- gressional action and who refuse to cast a ballot for any political party, yet the I.W.W. has fought more political battles for the working class than any other labor organization or political party in America. They have had one battle after another for free speech. They have fought against vagrancy laws, against criminal syndicalism laws, and to es- tablish the right of workers to organize. They have gone on strike for men in prison, It is to the ignominy of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party that they have so seldom joined forces with the I.W.W. in these desperate political struggles. We oe bee trial was now a thing of the past. Although,Orchard had testi- fied to my being a party to the Independence Depot Explosion, the Vindicator explosion, and all the other diabolical deeds in Colorado to which he had confessed, and although I had been charged in the courts of Cripple Creek district with some of these crimes, no word was ever raised against me after my return from Boise, and no move was ever made to revive these charges. The mine owners were whipped in their attempt to wreck the train, they were whipped in the Boise trial, and they knew they would be Whipped again if ever they attempted to try any of us for these crimes,*of which they themselves had indubitably been guilty. Many big offers of money came to me from different paris of the country, for lectures and vaudeville appearances after my acquittal at Boise. The Tuileries Gardens of Denver offered me seven thousand dollars for a week’s appearance. Zick Abrams of California offered fifteen thousand dollars for forty lectures. The Star Circuit wanted to give me four thousand dollars a week for eight weeks. I talked over the various offers with my wife and my friends and while I could see that there was an opportunity to make a large sum of money, I told them that if I tookethese offers from capitalist con- cerns, the price would fall from month to mosth and my prestige would be lessened every day. If I limited my lectures to working class organ- izations every step I made would be upward in the estimation of the workers. In vaudeville I should be speaking to mixed audiences, not carrying the message to the working class. I was called to meetings in Chicago and Milwaukee under the auspices of the labor organizations and Socialist Parties of these cities, In Chicago the first meeting was at Luna Park, where there were forty-five thousand paid admissions, before the crowd broke down the fence and filled the field where I spoke. Later there was a meeting at Riverside Park, arranged by the Socialist Party, where there were sixty thousand paid admissions. At Milwaukee there was an audience estimated at thirty-seven thousand, if I remember correctly; at any rate it was a vast assemblage. All rights rese,ved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permisstcn. * 2 WENT back to Chicago and was for a few days the guest of Anton Johansen, organizer for the Wood Workers’ Union. He and Matt Schmidt, who is now in San Quentin Penitentiary, took me for an auto- mobile ride through the beautiful parks and boulevards. The monument of the policeman with his club was then still standing in Haymarket Square. I recall the revulsion of feeling that filled me when I looked at this symbol of working class oppression. Then they drove me out to Waldheim Cemetery. When I realized that I was standing at the foot of the monument to the workers who had been hanged twenty years before, I burst into tears. The remembrance of these men had grown closer to me than a*blood relationship, since the time when, as a boy, I had followed the details of their trial and execution. After going back to Denver, I returned to Boise, where Pettibone’s trial was about to begin. Pettibone was then in the hospital. I think his illness had been caused partly by his loneliness after we left the jail. Darrow was suffering from mastoiditis. He was so ill that he had to remain seated in the courtroom. About two weeks after the trial opened, when the jury had been chosen, he had to go away for an operation on his ear. We then put Judge Hilton of Denver in charge of the case, Richardson having withdrawn after my trial. Pettibone’s trial began like a repetition of my own. He himself did not take the stand because of his ill health, and it was finally decided to submit the case to the jury without argument. The jury acquitted him. Moyer was never tried; the case against him was dis- missed soon after Pettibone’s acquittal. Pettibone died shortly after his return to Denver. John Murphy, too, died at about the same time, of consumption. The Western Federar tion put up monuments to them both, but I was on a speaking tour and could not attend their funerals. ig Ne: be the fall of 1907 the executive board of the W.F.M. asked me to go to Goldfield, Nevada, in behalf of Preston and Smith, who were serving life sentences in Carson Penitentiary. Preston and Smith had been convicted of killing a restaurant keep- er in Goldfield. Preston was a miner, and all the workers in Goldfield were organized, the town workers in tKe I.W.W., the miners in the W.F.M. There had been some commotion in front of a restaurant against which a strike had been declared. The boss rushed out with a gun in his hand, and either fired at or threatened Preston, who shot and killed him. I do not remember Smith’s connection with the affair, but it was the general consensus of opinion that these men had been railroaded to the penitentiary, and I was sent there to see what could be done about securing their release, At about the same time, Grant Hamilton, an American Federation of Labor organizer and a Mason of high standing, was sent to Goldfield by Gompers to try to organize the A. F. of L. in that camp. Hamilton was quartered at the Montezuma Club, the headquarters of the mine owners. A short time later a group of restaurant workers, members nm the A. F’. of L., were brought. to scab on the J.W.W. strike in (iold- eld. Bitter feeling was growing up between the staunch I.W.W.’s and the reactionists in the W.F.M. Vincent St. John had gone to Golé- field from the Coeur d’Alenes and was active in affairs there. some difficulty arose between St. John and Paddy Mullaney. The two mex met in the street one day and Mullaney whipped out his gun. Before St. John nad a chance to draw, Mullaney shot him through both arma. When I get to Goldfield, St. John was in the hospital and Mullaney was in jail. I went to see St. John. He was in bed, his right arm badly injured. Although the hand was saved, he was permanently crippled. a a In the next chapter Haywood tells of the desperate struggle he made to keep Moyer and his group from splitting the metal miners away from the 1.W.W. You can get free a copy of Haywood’s book with one year’s subscription, new or renewal, to the Daily Worker. Sia yan ] fi ] 1